Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
No, it’s not the back view of Patrick Stewert’s head. Nor is it a cricket ball that was lost in 1926 and spent the rest of its life hidden under a hedge on the village green. Nope, what you’re looking at instead is actually one of Jupiter’s 80 moons. This is an image of Europa released by NASA and taken by its Juno mission.
Observations from the spacecraft’s pass of the moon provided the first close-up in over two decades of this ocean world, resulting in remarkable imagery and unique science.
NASA has just released an interesting timelapse video of the main body of the Europa Clipper arriving at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. The spacecraft’s body was designed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
In the video below, you can see the main body encased in a protective casing, being unloaded and unpacked, almost like an early Christmas present. The spacecraft is currently undergoing final assembly before being tested for its launch in 2024. Then it will be sent to explore Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa.
It’s funny how many things are being called out as fakes lately. It seems that most people think everything that’s posted to social media these days has been made by some kid in their bedroom with a copy of After Effects or Blender. The latest victim to the cries of “FAKE!” is a timelapse sequence created from a number of still photographs shot by Cassini back of the moons Io and Europa passing Jupiter’s surface in January 2001.
The video was created by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA-JPL) scientist Kevin M. Gill by combining hundreds of images shot by Cassini into a timelapse sequence. Despite the images being created 21 years ago, the timelapse video wasn’t created or posted to social media until 2018. More recently than that, it’s been posted to Reddit in r/Damnthatsinteresting with the caption “Timelapse of Europa and Io orbiting Jupiter captured by the Cassini probe” but commenters don’t believe it’s real. But are they right?
It’s crazy to think that the Hubble Space Telescope has been floatin’ around in space for over 30 years now. But since launch day on April 24th, 1990, it’s shown us some incredible sights that we wouldn’t otherwise ever get to see. Recently, it sent back a new image of Jupiter with its moon Europa right beside it, with an incredible level of detail and beauty.
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